An 8 Year Old’s First Impression of Java
This is a true story. It happened a few hours ago.
I was talking to my 8-year old son earlier today, describing the game Risk. I mentioned that several years ago, I was hooked on a computer Risk game. He was interested in playing, so I found this Java Applet version of Risk. I fired up the page, and a “Loading Java” screen of some sort showed up. While the progress bar slowly inched to the right, I tried bookmarking the page.
But the “Add Bookmark” dialog wouldn’t go away, no matter how many times I hit OK. The browser was pretty much hosed, while the “Loading Java” progress bar slowly inched across the screen. My son uttered the words…
Java is slow.
The game eventually started, I removed around 8 bookmarks (they were all created, but the dialog box was locked up while Java started), and he enjoyed the game.
Boy, that’s true. Java on the browser is dead. Mercifully killed by Web 2.0.
I’d log that as a bug with Firefox. (Not that Java is slow — the bookmark thing)
There is flash version as well and it sure feels faster. Java is slow is true statement.
…and they want to put this on an iPhone over the Edge network…..
@Eric Should we report a bug that you have 2 Smitty’s. The name is required, but not unique. Too bad, but no biggie. I don’t have a copyright on my nickname.
I hope I don’t have to experience this with my 8 or 10 year old. He knows I write JAVA. Ouch!
Java IS slow… as an applet. Anybody still using Java applets is seriously out of date though. Java on the server and even desktop these days can be quite snappy.
Java is slow - no doubt about that. But in this particular instance isn’t it the net connection’s fault?
The point is that an unbiased user - an 8 year old - says “Java is slow” as his first impression. He never said “Flash is slow” despite playing dozens of Flash games, Webkinz, Club Penguin, etc. (all over the same network connection, with the same browser)
For what it’s worth, slow startup as well as browser freeze-up during Applet initialization are allegedly being fixed in Java 6 Update N. If Sun can fix these issues, Java on the client might have a chance.
re: first impression.
This is actually a profound story. Like y’all, my first reaction was “no one uses applets and the JVM is kicking butt these days. jRuby versus C-Ruby etc etc”.
But the boy doesn’t care. Nor do other mainstream users. Nor do non-Java developers.
One of the most public faces for Java is lame: that’s bad. It is very hard to get past a stigma.
Even more interesting, when you consider the lad’s quote vis-a-vis the new ticker symbol.